Wilson bars frills, smashes precedents

WASHINGTON, March 15, 1913 (UP) -- It is becoming more and more certain that Woodrow Wilson is really president of the United States.

He intends personally to handle the legislative situations by discussing matters with the legislators and making his influence felt. He made cabinet officers official "sifters" of applicants for jobs, but after they pass on candidates, Wilson will do the appointing.

Moreover, the new president is going about his business with so little ostentation and full that if it wasn't for the cries of the job hunters-and they are overpowering-nobody would think an administration had been overturned and another one installed, except for certain precedents that have been smashed.

The gold lace business has been eliminated at the white house. Maj. Rhoades, inherited from Taft, doesn't wear his uniform now when he goes out with the president.

There will be no king business at the white house, either. The chief executive has decided it is not necessary for him to wear a silk hat and a cutaway coat as his badge of office. A plain sack suit suits him. Under Roosevelt and Taft a couple of khaki-coated motorcycle policemen acted as outriders to the presidential automobile. They have been dispensed with.

The standing orders to Washington theaters to drape the presidential box and play the national anthem when the president goes to a show have been squelched.

When a statement to the public is issued at the white house nowadays, it is President Wilson who says what is to be said-and says it in the first person. That shattering of precedent was a complete body blow at white house red tape. And the new president followed it up with the announcement that a plan was in formulation whereby all that transpired in cabinet meetings was to be given to the newspapers.

The new president hasn't turned all the republicans out of office. Save for cabinet heads and some of their immediate assistants, there hasn't been much change since Taft left. The army of the job-hungry is apprehensive.

Above all the clash and clatter of smashed and smashing precedents are heard the shrill cries of the office-seekers. Washington is full of them.

Postmaster General Burleson is bothered the most. It is intimated the Taft order placing 35,000 postmasters under the civil service may be canceled. That report was enough to produce about 75,000 requests for the 35,000 jobs. It takes from two to three hours now for a visit or to get to Burleson. His office is crowded all the time.